Kevin Stallings stressed that “the decision is not made by me” when asked whether he would return for an 18th season at Vanderbilt after a first-round NCAA tournament flameout against Wichita State.

Turns out, it was.

Stallings abruptly left the Commodores for Pittsburgh on Sunday, trading a program that spent most of his tenure in the muddled middle of the Southeastern Conference for one trying to forge a new identity in the stacked Atlantic Coast Conference after Jamie Dixon bolted last week for TCU.

Stallings, 55, is 455-283 with nine appearances in the NCAAs while at Illinois State and Vanderbilt. He went 332-220 with the Commodores and is the winningest coach in the program”s history. His tenure included seven NCAA berths and trips to the Sweet 16 in 2004 and 2007.

Yet sustained success, particularly in March, has proved elusive. Vanderbilt started this season ranked 18th and moved as high as 16th but finished 19-14 after getting blown out by Wichita State in the opening round of the tournament, the fourth time in Vanderbilt”s last five NCAA trips it failed to win a single game.

Stallings is expected to be introduced Monday. H takes over a team that on the surface isn”t much different from the one he is leaving. Pitt went 21-12 this season, falling to Wisconsin in an ugly 47-43 loss in the second round of the NCAAs. Less than three days after that stinging defeat, Dixon traded in 11 NCAA appearances with the Panthers for the chance to rebuild the Horned Frogs.

Kansas: Coach Bill Self was quick to accept the truth after Saturday”s 64-59 Elite Eight loss to Villanova: “We only start one senior,” Self said, “but the reality is, we”re not going to have our entire group back.”

The Jayhawks lose scholarship players Perry Ellis, Jamari Traylor and Hunter Mickelson while adding freshmen big men Udoka Azubuike and Mitch Lightfoot. That leaves KU with one scholarship available even without any other movement.